Masterworks: a player's perspective from the audience

How lovely to be able to bask in the glory of being part of the SCO, without actually having to do the hard work. On Monday night I went along to hear my colleagues play MacMillan’s Tryst, presented by Paul Rissmann. [This title word is defined rather prosaically in the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘appointed meeting’, and, to clear up some confusion in my mind at least, can apparently be pronounced with a long or a short ‘y’.] Nothing prosaic about the piece or performance though, and now, as I write, they are all off presenting and performing the work to schools around Scotland.

Some may well wonder what a performer is doing at work, albeit in the audience, on her night off – but it is not often you get the chance to hear such interesting music so clearly and well presented. And why should the schools be the only ones to benefit from this enlightening experience? This work was new to me, and thanks to Rissmann, Jim Lowe and the SCO, it is now infinitely more accessible to me than had I not attended and had my ears opened by the team on stage.

We will all be playing this piece later in the season, and now, thanks to the Masterworks project being opened up to the non-school-aged public, it is one work I no longer feel daunted by, but can look forward to enjoying. Thanks for doing the hard work for us SCO – think I’ll just put the kettle on...